"Coup de Coeur" of the Week #13

 

Ever since I saw this video, it's been my coup de coeur of the week, of the month, of the year. Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel (both on How I Met Your Mother, that I have yet to start watching) singing "The Confrontation" part of Les Misérables, as Jean Valjean and Javert. This is pure hilariousness and perfection. Enjoy!

Vacuflex: what in the world is that thing?

On Saturday, I went to the MACBA: Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona. The entire collection was really nice, but there is one thing that stood out for me: Vacuflex. But what in the world is that thing? Good question.

 

I entered the room "La Utopia es Possible", dedicated to what the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) had done in Ibiza in the 1970s and it was full of very colorful pouffes where you could sit to watch a bunch of videos about the installations they did. I watched a part of the video about Instant City: a city created with bouncy castles material and it looked really fun. But then I turned to watch the video about Vacuflex and I was puzzled.

 

 

The website of the museum writes that Vacuflex was a mobile sculpture made from a green industrial plastic tube over 250 meters long. The interactive intervention consisted of carrying the tube to the different areas around the bay. The piece became a playful objet with which it was possible to sculpt different shapes spontaneously and write words in the sand or water. Art could then become a game. The artists were a group of hippies who wanted to connect art and architecture with artistic installations, concerts, philosophical debates, sociology and urban education.

 

This bunch of young artists were carrying that huge green tube on their shoulders in a line, passing over people's heads and next to tourists sunbathing on the beach in Ibiza. Their faces were priceless. Then they went in the sea with this long tube and made a sort of circle with it.

 

I just thought it was all so hilarious and weird that it was worth mentioning on this blog. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Edvard Munch

I've always had a weird connection with Edvard Munch. Munch, pronounced [ˈmʉŋk], was a Norwegian painter from the beginning of the 20th century. His type of art, Expressionism, is usually not my favorite (I usually love Romanticism, or prettier and "lighter" things). But it turns out that during my Senior Year of High School in Belgium, and during my year in Mississippi, I had to give a talk about him in class. I learned so much about his life that I thought I knew him like no one else. This man was tortured, and his art accounts for it and something beautiful comes out of it. Here are some of my favorite works of art from Edvard Munch.

There is, of course, The Scream (1893).

Evening on Karl Johan Street (1892)

The Separation (1894)

Lady from the Sea (1896)

The Dead Mother and Child (1899-1900)



Edvard had to watch his entire family die before his eyes while he stayed alive. This helps to understand the darkness of his art. He also painted The Sick Child, because his sister died when he was young.

And now, here are sweeter paintings from him.

 

Girls on Jetty (1901)

Spring Day on Karl Johan (1891)